Postcard Pageant

Better Late Than Never

As promised, here are some photos from last week's beach trip. One of the highlights of the week was dinner at a place called Lulus. They don't take reservations there, but when James' aunt called about 4:30, they said the wait was about 15 minutes. By the time we arrived about a half-hour later, the wait was over an hour. Not to worry. There's plenty to do and see while you wait.
There was a giant sandbox to keep the kids entertained as well.
Our table was near the band, a Southern bluegrass, rock sort of group by the name of Grits and Pieces. We enjoyed the music although conversation was a bit difficult.

Finally, in a flashback to the 1960s, here's a picture I made out the car window while we were on our way to Lulus.
I'll bet you wish you had one of these!

Beauty and the Beast

April is a month of unparalleled beauty in the deep south. Flowering trees and shrubs abound, along with many varieties of flowers (if you planted any bulbs last fall).
Even the weeds (violets) are pretty.
And the beast? If you live here, you already know. It's the pine pollen. Everything is covered in gritty, yellow dust. Yuck!I hate for my car to look like this, and I really wanted to go through the automatic car wash today, but I knew that it would be a waste of time and money.

Home Sweet Home

We arrived back home this evening after a coolish (temperature-wise) week at the beach with James' family. With temperatures not getting higher than the mid-70s I never even put on my swimsuit and got nothing more than a few toes wet with salt water. I still enjoyed being at the beach though, and I'll share a few pictures next week.

A most unusual thing happened while we were there. I'm still puzzling over what to make of it. I was walking through Walmart while talking on my cell phone, asking James what kind of bait I should get for him. A 70-ish man approached me, presumably from the rear as I didn't see him until he was within hand-shaking distance. He held out his hand to offer something to me, so I extended mine as well, and smiled at him as he dropped four Band-aids into my hand. By the time I looked to see what he'd given me, he was disappearing around the end of the aisle. Any idea what that was all about?

Still Enjoying the Beach

Here's the bunch of us. (And we didn't go to the circus. This is the drapery in our condo.)
Back row L-R: James' uncle, James' brother, James' brother-in-law, James.
Front row L-R: James' aunt, James' sister-in-law, James' sister. me.

Birthday Cards

The card above went with a "Happy Birthday" message to my best friend during my teen years and the one below went to James' uncle, the one with whom we're vacationing this week.

Where in the World Is...

I haven't told you yet that I'm not really here... Here being at home. We're spending this week at the beach with James' family. It's a five-bedroom condo on Orange Beach, Alabama. From our sixth floor balcony, here is the view of the beach.
And the view of the pool below.
This afternoon I sat down on the beach and read mystery stories while my husband and brother-in-law fished. They didn't catch anything, but I'm not really sure that they expected to! In my opinion, it's not quite beach weather yet. Deeming it too cool for a swimsuit, I was wearing capris and a short-sleeved shirt. I still had to wrap up in my beach towel because I was cold. It's nice to be here anyway though, and especially nice to spend the time with James' aunt and uncle, his two siblings, and their spouses. And don't even get me started on what we've had to eat!

It's a Wrap

I finished the quilt made from my late step-father's shirts last week and gave it to my mother.
Here are some of the shirts along with a green accent fabric and the World War II vintage airplane fabric that I chose for the back.
While I was cutting some of the shirt into strips, Blinky made sure the rest of the shirts didn't go anywhere.
I sewed the strips together and then cut them to make rows of blocks.
Here is the finished top.
I didn't have enough of the airplane fabric for the back, so I went through my stash and came up with this checked fabric.
Finally, here are some pictures of the finished quilt. It doesn't look so good with the daisy dust-ruffle on my guest bed, but it's not there any longer since my mom took it home with her. Also, you've heard of a disclaimer; well here's a "claimer" -- Wavy lines are exactly as they appear. It's not just the photos that make them look that way. I was trying to quilt in straight lines, but this was just too big a project to do without a frame. All the pushing and pulling resulted in way-less-than-straight lines. But overall, it looks OK, Mama was pleased, and I'm not planning on entering the quilt in any competitions anyway.

Happy Easter!

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.

May you have a blessed Easter and know the power of the resurrection, the love of Christ, and the sure promise of eternal life in Him.